A packed St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica, filled with family, friends and well-wishers, gathered May 11 to see five men become the newest priests for the Archdiocese of Toronto. 

Seven men handed their lives over to service in the Church, service to the Eucharist, service to the Gospel at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto on Saturday, May 13.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican and the Chinese government will extend an agreement signed in 2018 regarding the appointment of bishops.

Deacon Michael Corpus had family coming to Toronto from California and the Philippines to attend his May ordination to the priesthood. Other members of his St. Augustine’s Seminary graduating class were expecting family from as far away as Poland, South Korea and South America.

It’s easy for a vocations director in North America to get discouraged. 

Vocations to the priesthood have been in decline everywhere in the world except Africa since 2012.

Though it all hinges on an invitation from Canada’s bishops, the superior general of the world’s 17,000 Jesuits — including Pope Francis — is certain the Pope will issue an apology on Canadian soil for Catholic involvement in Canada’s residential school system.

There’s nothing older or more essential to the Church than the laying on of hands. In the Acts of the Apostles, one of the first things the newly formed Church does is commission seven men who speak different languages and represent different cultures. They were ordered (ordained) to make sure that the widows and orphans of every ethnicity, tribe and clan within the young Church are cared for.